[FR] Highlight Export to md file

[jun6lee]

Describe your request

What I'd like is to make a library of pdfs as a vault (or a folder in a vault) where I have xyz.pdf and an adjacent xyz.md

As the contents of the .md file I'd like all the highlights from the pdf, this made in the plugin or in an external pdf viewer.
I'd be okay with having to pull the highlights once, or repopulate it through a command.

Am also okay with all of this not happening in one step.

Would appreciate if this could be implemented in the below order of priority:

• being able to pull highlights (as full text and/or links) into an md file
• creating an md file with the same name as the pdf for storing the above
• the above being template friendly to fine-tune the md file formatting and frontmatter on creation
• automating creation of md when a pdf is added

[matar3]

You can already export all the highlights into a md file by using the command "Extract & copy annotations in this pdf" (you will see it in the command Palette, by pressing ctrl+P). It is not automatic, but it already works.

[Spiralo-Idioide]

It would definitely be better if it was automatic. For the moment the plugin doesn't have a good workflow for reading and annotating. Especially when reading a lot of small pdf files, or multiple concurrently, having to manually export is kinda boring and really breaks the workflow compared to something like the Annotator Plugin.

[jun6lee]

I think learning about the "Extract & copy annotations in this pdf" functionality, an enhancement to this I feel would be great would be a checkbox in settings switching on the ability to do the following:

• "Create an .md file with same name as this pdf" by default
• "Extract & copy annotations in this pdf" | periodically
• "Paste/duplicate them into the same-name.md"

[RyotaUshio]

@jun6lee What do you mean by "Paste/duplicate them into the same-name.md"?

[Spiralo-Idioide]

@jun6lee What do you mean by "Paste/duplicate them into the same-name.md"?

I think it is just a way of saying "directly save the annotation in {same-name}.md file".
@jun6lee Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, Maybe a possibility to have a custom name for the target md file. The annotator plugin does that with yaml metadata "annotation-target: {pdf_name}.pdf".
It might be an interesting possibility because it makes possible to have different annotations saved in different files (for example I use it for different chapters).

It could also be possible to change the md annotation-target directly in the pdf reader.

[jun6lee]

What @Spiralo-Idioide said.. presuming a periodic sync between the two would be a waste.. manually being able to squeeze all the annotations into a {same-name}.md would be useful.

[zhuolisam]

What @Spiralo-Idioide said.. presuming a periodic sync between the two would be a waste.. manually being able to squeeze all the annotations into a {same-name}.md would be useful.

@jun6lee What do you mean by "Paste/duplicate them into the same-name.md"?

I think it is just a way of saying "directly save the annotation in {same-name}.md file". @jun6lee Correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, Maybe a possibility to have a custom name for the target md file. The annotator plugin does that with yaml metadata "annotation-target: {pdf_name}.pdf". It might be an interesting possibility because it makes possible to have different annotations saved in different files (for example I use it for different chapters).

It could also be possible to change the md annotation-target directly in the pdf reader.

Second this, having an annotation-target seems great.

Or better, the author has came up with a particular markdown metadata PDF:: to point at an associated PDF, it might be possible to also auto-target the file that has metadata PDF:: [[current_pdf.pdf]]